How To Save Money On Home Repairs Using Materials At Hand

When Pam and I moved to a remote mountain acreage in Montana ten years ago, neither of us could have predicted that the economic meltdown in 2008-2009 would bring us back full circle to an equally remote acreage in southeastern Arizona just a bit more than a mile from the Mexican border. For the moment, our "cabin" is an old 24-foot camp trailer, so we didn't have to build that. In addition to the trailer, which we'd owned for years without ever expecting to need it as a primary residence, we started with a 1974 model semi trailer, 40 feet long...three Rent To Own 8' x 12' storage sheds...a small two wheeled cargo trailer, a 2001 Subaru Outback, and a 1996 GMC pickup with an ailing transmission (no second gear).

With all of that in our possession, it might seem that we're in pretty good shape, but wait! There's less! That is, Pam is still disabled and unable to work, and once again, I've gone from a sizeable earned income to "nothing to brag about". In this case, a fixed income (my Social Security payments, which ever so thankfully came through in record time due to amazing help from the Douglas, Arizona, SSA office). Nothing beyond that until I can find work, and 15 apps later, not one nibble from any fish worth frying. Sure, I have a complete plan for building when we can afford it--but that could still be several years down the line. In the meantime, there are monthly land payments, shed payments, a few other leftover debts, and a scramble for sufficient food, let alone building materials.

Which all goes to underscore our onging necessity for extreme thrift. Not that we're complaining. The desert is truly beautiful, both of us are more at peace than we've been for a long time, and Pam's health is always better in this area.

We had loaned the camp trailer out to others for several years, never expecting to need it for ourselves. When we got it back, normal wear and tear added up to a screen door that was semi-functional at best. The aluminum center crosspiece and inside grab-thingie were both falling off. There were holes in the screen. An entire section that used to slide sideways to cover the outside door's latch...was as good as gone. A fair description would have been: What a mess! It needed to work right, keep bugs out. In the Arizona heat with no money to power the air conditioner, it was a necessity, not a luxury. Interior temperatures, even in May, have reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit with the door open.

In the long run, I knew I'd need to completely replace the outer door (not the screen door), but the monsoons were still a few weeks off. For now, deal with the immediate problem.

Step One: Secure the sagging crosspiece and inside grab handle. It turned out to be an easy fix: Two key screws were missing. Our junk drawer didn't help, but Ace Hardware provided the needed fasteners at a total cost of $0.32 (thirty-two cents) including tax.

Step Two: Fix the bug-invitation holes in the screen. You can see that the duct tape covers roughly one square foot in area. "If Duct Tape Can't Fix It, It's Broke" is a line used by one of my favorite comedians, Steve McGrew, quoting his father. The patch job looks a tad sloppy, and it is--we make no claims for aesthetics on this one--but it does the trick. However, just taping over the gaping holes would not have worked if I'd done it on only one side of the screen. In severe weather, either heat or cold, even duct tape will fail to hold in fairly short order...unless... unless you apply the tape on both sides of the screen and press the two sides together. Then they are happily glue-to-glue and will last at least as long as the average Hollywood marriage. Not perfect, but it does the job for the time being. Using an old roll of duct tape we had on hand, this fix cost exactly nothing ($0.00).

Step Three: Rig a workable latch. The original hardware had departed the premises via a well placed kick by a young occupant who had locked himself out some years ago. But we very much needed a latch that would be (a) kitty cat proof, so our ambitious house-raised felines would not go a-wandering and end up being lunch for a local predator and (b) easily opened or closed from inside or outside, so that Pam and I could go in and out freely without asking for help.

This did not have an immediately obvious solution, but we knew that even a trip to town was not in the budget. I decided the problem had to be solved using materials at hand. After perhaps twenty minutes of contemplating the challenge, the answer surfaced, and the key was in a roll of number nine wire we'd found during move-in.

How long had we lugged that coil of wire around? At a guess, from Montana in 2003 to eastern Colorado in 2006 to western Colorado in 2007 to Arizona in 2009. Not that it matters; once a rancher's son (like me) has hold of good, unused number nine wire, he does not let it go. It is the metallic wire version of duct tape: If you can't fix it with number nine, it's broke.

The actual project turned out to be simplicity itself. First, one of our several drills with the bit already in it was used to punch a hole through the center of the screen door's aluminum frame, low enough to deter a push from a freedom loving house cat but high enough to be convenient for my five foot wife.

A piece of wire roughly six inches long was then cut using fencing pliers, which I've also had for years, and which I've used literally since childhood.

After inserting the wire through the freshly drilled hole, pliers were used to shape the straight section into a fancy, sharply curved piece. When tipped "forward", the inside piece angles snugly across the inside door frame flange, providing a secure latch. The outside piece is twisted somewhat farther upward, with a bit angled back out toward the person working the latch from outside. Over time, the wire will doubtless loosen slightly, but a touchup with a pair of pliers (either regular or needle nose) will firm it up again. In the meantime, gravity works in our favor so that if loose, the door will not come open without our knowledge.

The outside portion of the latch can be seen toward the bottom of the photograph, several inches below the duct tape. Total cost of fix: Zero ($0.00).

We may be the only area desert dwellers in a "camping" situation who brought three cats and a leopard gecko along as part of the household, but we weren't about to leave them behind. Missy (the gecko) also (we figured) deserved to keep the quite sizeable glass cage in which she had lived for nearly two years. But once we installed her cage on the camper's counter opposite the foldout couch/bed, a complication quickly developed: Kitten Precious decided that Missy's cage-top was the most attractive spot in the entire place. Since the top is covered with screen only, the chance of Kitten eventually falling through and smunching Missy...well, the word "inevitable" comes to mind. Nor could Kitten be convinced to avoid that wonderful "screen hammock". What to do?

As it happened, we had a couple of unused studs, 8-foot pieces of 2" x 4" lumber, that filled the bill. A bit of work with a handsaw, the application of 10 of the last 11 nails we had on hand in 10d size, and we had a great, dual purpose platform mounted atop the cage.

 There was little doubt in our minds that Kitten would find the new cage top an equally fine place to hang out.  To give her the understanding that it was now okay to be there, I lifted her up there the first time.  Her thanks seemed to be heartfelt, and she spends a good portion of her day atop the 2" x 4" platform. 

A paradigm shift refers to suddenly seeing a situation from an entirely different perspective. It turned out that I needed one when it came to "housing" the smaller of our two generators. This is a truly lightweight, twenty-seven pound gasoline powered Yamaha inverter unit that provides electricity with which to run our computers, 60 watts of light after dark, etc. It is truly a fuel sipper, requiring no more than about a gallon of gas to provide us with something like 20 hours a week of "utilities".

But. The Yamaha needed protection from the elements. Hardcore sunshine couldn't be all that good for it, and the operator's manual warns strongly against operating the thing in, for example, rain. If you've never lived in the desert, that might not sound like a big deal, but the fact is, when it rains here, it can really come down.

What we did on the mountain in Montana was build a three-sided shed with a sloping roof, facing the exhaust toward the open side and the open side away from most of the weather. Sure, the manual says don't run 'em in any kind of building at all, but hey. They also say these are "backup" generators for "occasional" or "camping" usage. No such machine is ever touted as durable enough to hold up under daily duress, but every person we know who lives in a remote, off grid area does use one daily...until or unless solar and/or wind power can be installed.

Trouble was, we had no cash whatsoever for purchasing even the minimal amount of lumber and/or metal siding necessary to construct a generator shed. The answer, when it came, had been staring me in the face for weeks, but I missed it right up until the last minute. Why? Who knows. Maybe a brain cloud like Tom Hanks had in Joe Versus The Volcano.

All I had to do was move the generator under the back end of the semi trailer we use for storage. Perched on its get-off-the-ground platform (which started as a place to stand while taking a camp shower), it seems to be quite happy living under the trailer. Neither extreme sun nor extreme rain can get to it. Of course, a careless starter rope pull while bent over under there will result in an elbow whanging the underside of the semi quite firmly, but so what? It's well worth the sacrifice.

Once again, this project wrapped up at a total cost of zero ($0.00). Summing up for this Hub, then, we have five home improvement projects (three screen door repairs, one cage top platform, and one generator protector) for a Grand Total Out Of Pocket Cost Of $0.32 (thirty-two cents).

There are more examples available--but for another Hub, most likely How To Quick Fix On The Cheap, Part Two. For now, it's time to enjoy our surroundings a bit more before the sun goes down.

 Over the years, I've been sometimes flush, sometimes broke as broke can be.  When the money is tight, my how-to-get-by gene kicks in pretty strongly.  Admittedly, though, that gene seems to take a nap when there's money available.  So the money goes away, and the "creativity of desperation" has to kick in again...anybody see a cycle here?

But that's a subject for another Hub entirely.

Thanks for reading,

Ghost32